CIS/Index
Copyright © 2000, Congressional Information
Service, Inc.
2000 CIS S 43120
TITLE:
Mental Health Parity
CIS-NO: 2000-S431-20
SOURCE: Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions. Senate
DOC-TYPE: Hearing Retrieve
the full text of testimony
DOC-NO: S. Hrg. 106-582
DATE: May 18, 2000
LENGTH: iii+123 p.
CONG-SESS: 106-2
ITEM-NO: 1043-A; 1043-B
SUDOC: Y4.L11/4:S.HRG.106-582
CIS DOCUMENT ON DEMAND: 1-800-227-2477 (Full Text Reproductions)
SUMMARY:
Hearing to review implementation of the
Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, which requires insurance
companies to establish annual and lifetime dollar limits that are at least as
generous for mental health as for other medical and surgical
benefits, in connection with upcoming reauthorization.
Also
considers S. 796, the Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act, to
require insurance companies to expand mental health coverage
parity with other medical benefits, by requiring full
parity treatment for certain biologically-based severe
mental illnesses and by prohibiting limits on the number of
illness-related hospital days and outpatient visits that are covered for
mental illness.
Also includes transcript (p.
69-123) of Committee seminar on mental health parity.
Supplementary material (p. 4-5, 110-123) includes submitted
statements.
CONTENT-NOTATION: Mental
health insurance coverage requirements, extension and revision
BILLS: 106
S. 796
DESCRIPTORS:
HEALTH INSURANCE; MENTAL HEALTH FACILITIES AND
SERVICES; PSYCHIATRY; SURGEONS AND SURGERY; MENTAL HEALTH
PARITY ACT; INSURANCE COMPANIES; MENTAL HEALTH
EQUITABLE TREATMENT ACT
00-S431-20 TESTIMONY NO: 1
May 18, 2000 p. 5-12
WITNESSES (and witness notations):
WELLSTONE, PAUL DAVID (Sen, D-Minn)
STATEMENT AND DISCUSSION:
Merits of sponsored S. 796.
CONTENT NOTATION:
Mental
health insurance coverage requirements, extension and revision
00-S431-20 TESTIMONY NO: 2 May 18,
2000 p. 12-77
WITNESSES (and witness notations):
ALLEN, KATHRYN G. (Associate Director,
Health Financing and Public Health Issues,
Health, Education, and Human Services Division, GAO)
HYMAN, STEVEN E. (Dr.) (Director, National Institute of
Mental Health)
STATEMENTS AND DISCUSSION:
Status of Mental Health Parity Act
implementation and compliance; perspectives on mental health
research and nature of mental health disorders.
INSERTION:
-- National Advisory Mental
Health Council, "Insurance Parity for Mental
Health: Cost, Access, and Quality" with bibliography (p. 34-65).
CONTENT NOTATION:
Mental
health insurance coverage requirements, extension and revision
TESTIMONY DESCRIPTORS:
GENERAL ACCOUNTING
OFFICE; MEDICAL RESEARCH; BIBLIOGRAPHIES; MEDICAL ECONOMICS; NATIONAL INSTITUTE
OF MENTAL HEALTH
00-S431-20 TESTIMONY
NO: 3 May 18, 2000 p. 79-110
WITNESSES (and
witness notations):
LIBERTOFF, KEN (Director, Vermont
Association for Mental Health; also representing National
Mental Health Association)
DUCKWORTH,
KENNETH (Dr.) (Deputy Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Mental
Health)
WOOLDRIDGE, TARA (Manager, Employee
Assistance Program, Delta Air Lines)
ROSEN, DEAN (Senior
Vice President, Policy, Health Insurance Association)
STATEMENTS AND DISCUSSION:
Experiences of
Vermont with enactment of a mental health parity law; support
for S. 796; rationale for employer expansion of mental health
insurance coverage on a voluntary rather than statutorily mandated basis;
concerns that S. 796 will increase overall costs of insurance coverage.
CONTENT NOTATION:
Mental
health insurance coverage requirements, extension and revision
TESTIMONY DESCRIPTORS:
VERMONT ASSOCIATION
FOR MENTAL HEALTH; STATE LAWS; MEDICAL ECONOMICS; VERMONT
LOAD-DATE: July 6, 2001 
